Obama: Bank system still in need of reforms

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says that nearly four years after Congress toughened bank regulations the financial sector is still in need of more rules. He says bank customers need to be better protected against failed risk-taking.

Obama says the changes he pushed for and signed into law in 2010 protect taxpayers from having to bail out failed banks. But he says bank traders can still make huge bonuses on high risk trades. If the bets go bad, he says, quote "everybody else is left holding the bag."

Obama made his remarks in an interview with NPR's "Marketplace" program airing Thursday.

Obama does not specify what changes he would recommend. Recently he has met with groups of economists, including Stanford's Anat Admati, who has called for banning large banks from making payouts to shareholders until they can better deal with any losses.